A Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled that a Connecticut woman has grounds to sue Harvard University for emotional distress — but not for property rights violations — for possessing daguerreotypes depicting two enslaved people she claims as ancestors.
Tamara Lanier’s lawsuit, initially filed in 2019, was dismissed in June 2021 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. However, Judge Christopher K. Barry-Smith of the Middlesex County Superior Court revived the case last month, and Lanier [pictured] will proceed to trial, The Harvard Crimson reported.
“The higher court’s ruling put Lanier’s case back into [the lower] Middlesex County Court, which held a hearing [April 13] on Harvard’s motion to dismiss the remaining claims,” New London, Conn. newspaper The Day reported on April 14. “After the hour-long session, Judge Barry-Smith denied the motion and asked attorneys for both parties to propose a schedule for trial.”